Rural Britain is infested with criminal hunters who kill foxes, deer, hares and more. Most people in towns and cities don’t realise there’s a twenty year hunting crimewave going on in the countryside. If they did, they’d help end hunting.
Hunters hate it when the horrific extent of their crimes is revealed because the more people know about it, the more of us will make a fuss and the more chance there is that hunting will finally end forever.
Luckily there’s a constant stream of images, recordings, articles, drone footage, witness statements and video on social media and Google showcasing hunt crime in the UK. It is absolutely rife. If you’d like to help end fox hunting, deer hunting and hare coursing, one of the most important things you can do is spread the word. Here are some of the things hunters really don’t want you to talk about.
End hunting – Reputation matters to hunters
Hunters set great store by their reputation. They don’t realise nobody outside their tiny echo chamber respects them. They’re widely hated, often feared, and they’re outraged when their dirty secrets are uncovered. This makes sharing their antisocial behaviour, Torts and crimes a powerful way to hit the hunting community where it hurts. Because they play so dirty and have so little respect for the law, it’s fair game. In our experience this is the reputation-wrecking information they’re most scared of:
- The outrageous way they treat their dogs: starved, poorly-housed, cold, crowded, beaten, lost, and shot
- Hunters’ lies and self-deception
- Horse welfare, including severely overweight hunters, sub-standard horsemanship, and using horses as weapons
- The way they try to criminalise Hunt Saboteurs, whose only job is to stop hunts breaking the law
- Live real-time updates about where and when they’re hunting, shared so the public can keep their livestock, pets and children safe from harm and distress
- Information about hunters and hunt supporters who have been arrested, charged and prosecuted
- The way children are indoctrinated into a life of crime by hunt-loving parents
- The role of the UK Pony Club, Countryside Alliance, point-to-point events, ‘fun rides’, agricultural shows and Boxing Day hunt meets in introducing children to crime
- How parish, town, district and county councils employ hunt friendly councillors and support hunting in a variety of ways, passive and active
- The pets and livestock terrified, killed and maimed by dangerous hunting hounds out of control
- The Trail Hunting debacle, which proved beyond doubt that it is a smokescreen for the killing
- The shocking litany of antisocial behaviour by hunts and those who follow them
Money matters to hunters
No business can survive alienating the 90% or more of UK consumers who hate hunting. A 10% slice of the market isn’t enough of an audience. No wonder we get such an angry reaction from hunters about these subjects:
- Warning people about homes for sale and rent in hunt-infested areas, because estate agents don’t mention it
- Telling people about the ‘greenwashing’ attempted by hunt-supporting businesses
- Advising consumers not to accidentally book a holiday home, farm cottage or camp site whose owners support hunting – or who go hunting once the holidaymakers have gone home
- Letting hunters know they can’t claim on their insurance. Almost every insurer excludes hunting along with fictional ‘trail hunting’, and a fraudulent claim can leave a person unable to buy any kind of insurance: motor, home, liability, business, legal expenses, the lot
- Telling people about hunt-supporting pubs, restaurants, wedding venues, stately homes, campsites, hotels, helicopter rides and other businesses so they can avoid spending their money supporting wildlife crime
- Pointing out the financial and social repercussions of having a criminal record
Land access matters to hunters
If we can minimise the land hunts have permission to hunt on, we’ll eventually cut these fast-shrinking areas off from each other altogether. This will severely restrict access to what hunts call their ‘hunting country’, AKA ‘other people’s property’.
Reducing a hunt’s geographical potential means foxes in the few places hunts are allowed will either be slaughtered or move to safety, ultimately leaving hunters with nothing to kill. Elsewhere, foxes will find it easier to live in peace. And that’s why these social media post subjects frighten hunters so much:
- Naming complicit landowners and the businesses they run
- Explaining how hunts give an entire area a bad reputation thanks to their twenty year crime wave
- Warning landowners they can be prosecuted under the Hunting Act 2004 for enabling hunting on their property
- Encouraging more people to let us know about hunt meet locations and the places they trespass
- Informing people about what hunts can’t do on different types of land: public access land, land they’re banned from, nature reserves, public footpaths, council land and more
- Persuading more people to call the police about hunt crimes and antisocial behaviour
Know more about hunt crime in the UK
The best place to get the truth about hunting in the UK is to check out your local Hunt Saboteurs Association group’s social media. Some of the videos and images are gory, violent and upsetting, but they tell the truth. This is hunting.
Please help us end hunting
We’re hoping 2024 will see an end to fox hunting, stag hunting, hare coursing and every other kind of hunt crime. Please talk about the UK’s hunting scandal with people you know, especially if they live in towns and cities. Together we’ll drive hunting to extinction.
